YOUROPE EVENT SAFETY GROUP
INFOS




THE YOUROPE EVENT SAFETY GROUP - THE YES GROUP

INFOS

Mission:
The proposed group is a non profit making organisation acting as a catalyst in the context of event safety, crowd management and associated disciplines.  It will facilitate partners across Europe to engage in dialogue and activities which support the development of best practice at events.

Vision:
To enhance the knowledge of and enable participation in the support of initiatives which continually strive to create safer event environments in Europe.

Introduction
The proposed group is concerned with the development of an integrated safety culture connecting both the internal and external customer environments. The focus of the group is on the following areas:

  • Crowd Management
  • Health & Safety
  • Event Security
  • Risk Assessment, Analysis and Management
  • Systems and Procedures
  • Business Continuity
  • Disaster Management


Through an active approach to the subject and through support of agencies and event businesses, the Group intends to support the development of a generic safety culture.

Aims and Objectives

  • To encourage dialogue related to health and safety, crowd management and associated disciplines at events through conferences, projects and other forms
  • To create a forum through which existing knowledge can be shared by the widest possible audience
  • To create new knowledge through projects based in the live event environment and through academic approaches
  • To encourage knowledge exchange/transfer and the dissemination of best practice from existing events to others
  • To make Governmental Organisations aware where conflicting practices or confusing legislation have been identified
  • To seek funding for individual projects through the network of industrial partners and organisations
  • To create original data in an available format accessible easily by those working in events across Europe
  • To identify and discuss  issues pertinent to the event environment

Members of the Group

Henrik Nielsen      Roskilde Festival    Denmark

Henrik Bondo Nielsen (b. 1962) began his career at Roskilde Festival in 1980. At 18, he started as a volunteer at the festival, and in 1985 he became a member of the festival’s management committee. He is a school teacher by profession and worked as Head teacher until 1998 when festival administration and management became a full-time occupation. He is the initiator of the health and safety cooperation in the European Festival Association, Yourope, which has resulted in a series of health and safety seminars. Since 2001, he has represented Yourope in the ILMC Safety Focus Group, which was set up after the accident at Roskilde Festival in 2000. He is also Chairman of Festivaldanmark, the Danish Music Festival Association. Henrik Bondo Nielsen is also manager of Roskilde Events & Consult, Roskilde Festival’s Event and Production Company.
Gerard
van Duyrkeren		      ICMS Holland

Gerard van Duykeren, 46 years old, is Chief Executive Officer of ICMS, the parent company of The Security Company in The Netherlands, and Showsec in the United Kingdom. Mr Van Duykeren has worked in the events security sector for 30 years. He has been involved in around 5,500 events and was responsible for the security of around 2,500 events. Following his training at the HALO (The Hague Academy for Physical Education) he developed within the company and within the overall sector to become one of the most prominent crowd managers in Europe.

Gerard van Duykeren is currently a member of the KNVB’s security commission and he is a member of the European Event Safety Focus Group. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Stichting Opleidingenfonds voor de Evenementen Beveiligingsbranche (Foundation of the Educational Fund for the Events Security Sector, SOEB) and he is a member of the board of the VBE (Association of Events Security Companies.)

He initiated and co-wrote the quality document for events security (NEN NTA 8020-30). This document was drawn up in 2004 with the NEN and the VBE.

He regularly gives lectures in The Netherlands, Scandinavia and the UK at Higher Vocational Education (HBO) training sessions and international conferences on security. In 2001, the year after the accident, he went to Roskilde in Denmark as a consultant to lend support to the Festival organisation in terms of advice and know-how. He has also given crowd-management training sessions in Johannesburg in South Africa. Mr Van Duykeren was involved in security for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002.

In 2004 Mr Van Duykeren rewrote the Steward Training for the KNVB and drew up competence profiles for the various roles in the security organisation of the professional football organisations. He has put down some of his experience and know-how on paper, the result being the book Event Security Officer, which he co-wrote. Mr Van Duykeren is a member of the Central Examinations Committee of the Foundation for Professional Examinations for Private Security (SVPB).
Chris Kemp ICCMASS UK

Professor Chris Kemp is the Executive Dean of Faculty Enterprise & Innovation at Buckinghamshire New University. Chris is known throughout the world for his work on the management of crowds and his ceaseless endeavour to make events safer. His articles are widely publicised in the major music magazines and he is at the forefront or work in the development of a safer concert environment. Chris has been asked to speak on many occasions across the globe on aspects of crowd safety. These aspects range from crowd behaviour to barrier configurations. He has also addressed the House of Commons Committee on Olympic Security on the merits of training for the 2012 Olympic Games. Having worked in the music industry as a promoter and venue manager for over a decade before entering academia, he has a wide range of practical knowledge as well as an academic underpinning to his work. Chris promoted and managed over 3000 events from the London Contemporary Dance Company, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Iron Maiden to World Championship Snooker and Championship Boxing Events. The majority of work carried out by Chris is through the International Centre for Crowd Management and Security Studies which he set up with Mick Upton the crowd management guru in 2003. The work currently taking place in the centre spans the globe including South Africa, Australia, South America and across Europe.
Pascal Viot Paleo Festival Switzerland

Active in the event security field since 1992, Pascal Viot has co-ordinated hundreds of sporting (football), cultural (concerts, festivals) or business (conferences, exhibitions) events on various scales, in Switzerland and Europe. He was recently been asked to develop and manage the emergency procedures and the crisis cell of recent major concerts like the Rolling Stones (Lausanne) and The Police (Genève) in 2007.

Being also a sociologist, specializing in the field of risk and safety, he was between 2000 and 2006 a lecturer in several French universities. He currently directs a research at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) on the Security of Major Events, with a case study of the Euro 2008 in Geneva (financed by the FIFA).

After 15 years of collaboration, including responsibility for the security of the main stage for 5 years, Pascal Viot has been Paléo Festival’s Safety Coordinator for 3 years. Since 2008, he has also become a member of the European Health and Safety Focus Group of the Association Yourope (consortium of major European festivals).
Ralf Zimme ESPRIT arena Germany

Ralf Zimme is Director of Event Engineering of the ESPRIT arena in Düsseldorf and responsible for production management and Health & Safety.

He started working in the live music industry in 1987 as a Stage Hand and gained experience from different roles within the Promoters Office, moving on to become Production and Stage Manager in late 1992.

As Production Manager for small clubs to big stadium shows, along with the 3 Day “Bizarre Festival” from 1992 – 2001, he finished his degree qualification “Meister für Veranstaltungstechnik” in 1999.

Since 2004 he has worked for the ESPRIT arena focusing on Health & Safety in Productions and Audience.

During the last 2 years he reviewed and developed an individualized Safety Concept for the ESPRIT arena and an Evacuation Concept with detailed action cards for security staff, security supervisors, traffic control, caterers and public relation-people.

In the beginning of 2009 he finished his qualification as an “expert for event-rigging” and will become health & safety engineer in the end of this year.


The Group Profile
Members of the Group will meet twice a year to engage in dialogue regarding the policy, seminar possibilities and developments in security, crowd management and Health & Safety at events. Membership of the Group is unpaid and linked specifically to the Mission of the Group which is ‘to enhance the knowledge of and to enable participation in the support of initiatives which continually strive to create safer event environments in Europe’. It is expected that all members involved will share knowledge and eschew all commercial benefits whilst enabling good practice to be assimilated.

The Group is aligned to the International Centre for Crowd Management and Security Studies and utilises marketing and networking opportunities at the Univeristy.

Those taking part will be expected to:

  • Have more than a general interest in Health & Safety matters
  • Be actively involved in the education of others in the area of crowd management/Health & Safety and associated disciplines
  • Be willing to participate in seminars where necessary
  • Be willing to share innovations and good practice
  • Be able to participate in active discussion
  • Abide by and uphold the values of the Group

The Group will incorporate members from local government, the police, ambulance services and the fire brigade into a wider group to discuss pertinent issues in the subject areas when necessary.

The aim is to create a one or two day seminar, twice a year, in a format which can be used to focus on a select number of issues related to Health & Safety, crowd management and associated disciplines, across a range of countries. This could be developed to create a series of seminars which follow on and identify the sharing of good practice.

Seminars for Groups
These will include:

  • Ingress and egress including from arrival in the area to leaving the area
  • Theory of crowd management
  • Psychological perspectives
  • Re-occurring accidents and problems
  • Changes and the development of innovation at events
  • Issues with mass and emergency evacuation
  • Reducing tension at problem events by managing the crowd effectively and efficiently
  • Interpretation of data from a range of events
  • Any other areas thought applicable